Stress, Burnout, and Coping Strategies

Excessive and prolonged stress can result in physician burnout. Burnout can compromise a physician’s ability to effectively meet the needs of patients, while also having adverse effects on personal health and well-being. Physicians are exposed to a tremendous number of stressors that arise from factors such as time and resource constraints, the complex hierarchy among medical professionals, malpractice claims, and “difficult” patients and treatments. Although burnout is currently considered to be mostly due to external causes, protective mechanisms that physicians can employ to shield themselves are explored. Hans Selye’s model of the general adaptation syndrome is one means that individuals cope with stress, along with Richard Lazarus’s transactional model of stress. Other coping strategies include problem-based coping, the ABC technique, and meditation and mindfulness. Several maladaptive responses may temporarily offer relief but can in the long run prove to be damaging. Finally, online and other digital stress-reduction programs are explored.